Chapter 3: Desperation

The water droplets flowed along the curved side of the concrete wall. It was a small amount, but it was the water of life that kept me alive. I frantically licked the wall, desperate to quench my thirst. As the water entered my parched body, my hunger dissipated, or perhaps it was my mind tricking me into thinking I was no longer hungry.

I leaned my back against the wall and let out a sigh as the water replenished my dried-up muscles. I slowly moved my arms and legs, feeling the strength return to my body. The joints in my limbs began to loosen and I felt my muscles getting stronger, or perhaps it was all just an illusion my mind had created to keep me from losing hope.

My clothes were tattered and torn, hanging off my emaciated frame. 

As I regained enough strength, I tried to stand up. "Come on!" I grunted through gritted teeth, the veins on my forehead bulging with effort. Simply crawling on the floor and getting up with strength in both legs required a different level of strength and concentration of mind. It was a painful challenge for someone who had been lying on the floor for a long time with my entire body paralyzed.

The fear of dying made me endure the pain and gave strength to my legs. Both of them trembled in a cold sweat that flowed down like a waterfall from my body. All the water I had drank a while ago seemed to have been drained out as sweat. 

"Turn the damn waterworks off!" I growled through clenched teeth, inhaling deeply.

My body shook as if I was about to fall soon, but I managed to hold on to my center of gravity. I eventually stood up on my own two legs. To think, this would be an accomplishment in my mind. "Hoo!" The breath that had been suppressed came out as I wheezed when I stood holding my thighs with both of my hands. I couldn't confirm it because I couldn't see it, but I thought that hot steam would exude from my body. That's how hot my body was.

"Hehehe," I chuckled at my own joke as I breathed in and out, waiting for the heat to subside. 

All I could see was pitch black, the darkness seemed to envelop me like a thick, suffocating blanket. It was as if I was trapped in the physical embodiment of crippling depression. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy towards the animals that were able to see in the dark. I had given up on trying to see with my eyes, as if by some miracle, I would suddenly gain the ability to see in the dark.

As I reached out and touched the wall in front of me, my fingers brushed against something small and firm. I realized it was mushrooms, growing out of the cracks in the concrete. I plucked one out, and as I held it in my hand, I noticed that it began to illuminate.

The mushroom emitted an orb of light that escaped out of the mushroom's cap, blinding me with its intensity. The light was so bright that it felt like needles were piercing my eyes, causing an absolute pain to shoot through my head. I squeezed my eyes shut, tears streaming down my face as I tried to bear the pain.

The light was so intense that it seemed to fill every corner of the room, illuminating the darkness with a soft, ethereal glow. 

The walls were covered with vibrant green moss. The moss seemed to be almost alive, wriggling and squirming as if it was trying to consume the very walls themselves. 

As one pushed their way through the moss, they would noticed that the walls were hiding something beneath. Ancient murals and texts were etched into the stone, obscured by centuries of moss growth. The murals depicted scenes of a long-forgotten civilization, with images of people and creatures that one from this world couldn't recognize. The texts were written in a language that not from this world.

The mushrooms that grew out of the moss were a deep purple color.

The light seemed to dance and flicker, casting shadows on the walls that twisted and turned.

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I couldn't see anything but the light, and the pain was so overwhelming that I couldn't even think. I felt disoriented and dizzy, my head spinning as I stumbled backwards. I could hear a ringing in my ears, and I felt like I was going to be sick.

I clutched the mushroom tightly in my hand, not wanting to let go of the light and the pain. 

The pain and the light continued for what felt like an eternity, until finally, it started to fade. The light dimmed, and the pain subsided, leaving me feeling drained and exhausted. I opened my eyes, and looked at the mushroom in my hand. It was still glowing, but now it was a soft, gentle light that was easy on the eyes.

I felt my body trembling, and my mind was a mess. I didn't know what had just happened, but I knew that I had to get out of this place. I turned and ran, not looking back until I was far away from the light and the pain.

I couldn't tell what color the mushroom was, nor could I tell what kind it was. Some mushrooms were edible, but some can cause serious health problems. It could have been poisonous, or it could have harbored a disease. I couldn't tell even if I had my eyes, but now the only information I could get was from the sense of my fingertips. I felt a twisting pain in my stomach, the hunger that I had forgotten for a while suddenly came back. Drinking water was nothing more than a temporary measure. I had to eat something.

My fingertips alone wouldn't be enough to tell if the mushroom was edible. Still, the fact that I was holding moss in my hand made my mouth salivate. I placed the mushroom down, and touched the walls. "Don't eat it, it could be poisonous," I whispered to myself, trying to hold on to the last shreds of sanity. But my hunger overpowered the sane part of my mind. Now was the time to eat something, I didn't care if it was poison, I didn't care if this would be my last meal. I just wanted to eat.

I took the mushroom, and shoved it into my mouth. An indescribable, hellish taste attacked my tongue. The taste was so terrible that I gagged and almost threw up. But I didn't want to waste this "food" even if it was poisonous. I forced myself to hold on, not wanting to sit down in my current state, knowing it would be impossible to get up again. Water dripped from my eyes and nose as I struggled to swallow the moss. It was a terrible, bitter taste, but it was something.

The taste of the mushrooms was like a hellish inferno in my mouth, but fortunately, I didn't feel any abnormalities in other parts, or maybe the poison would act up after a few minutes. At this point, I wished the poison would put me out of my misery. After a few minutes, I didn't feel any other irregularities except that my taste buds were numb. It meant the mushrooms were edible. Damn it, and here I was hoping that I would get the sweet release of death.

I hastily scraped the mushrooms which for some reason didn't glow and brought them to my numb mouth. I no longer felt the taste of hell. It was painful nonetheless, but once I got used to it, it was tolerable. Deaddeck! I randomly scraped the wall and collected mushrooms. Some of which glew while others didn't.

When it is collected to a certain extent, I put it in my mouth and repeated the act. 'I can live. I can live somehow.' Chewing the mushrooms, I murmured to myself. Great, looks like I had finally lost it.

My tongue was almost paralyzed, and my voice never came out of my mouth, but my spirits were firm like a teenager's desire to procreate. As I chewed on the mushrooms, a desire began to emerge in my heart. I had to survive and get revenge on the man who imprisoned me here, and if I couldn't do that, then at the very least, I would find out the reason why I had been imprisoned there.

I didn't know how much of the mushrooms had been scraped off. There was no feeling of satiety. Still, the hunger went away to some extent. My tongue continued to tingle as the numbing feeling wore off a little. I caressed the area around my mouth with my hand. Fortunately, after some time, the sensation of my tongue returned to normal.

I thought I was lucky or maybe fate had other plans for me and kept me alive... yeah, right. I made a gamble that risked my life. I don't know how big the space I was trapped in was, but there were a lot of mushrooms on the wall, so I would be able to hang on to my life for the time being. Of course, I would have to endure that hellish taste every time.

I rested while standing for a while, after which I began to move, putting my hand on the wall. It was to estimate the size of the space in which I was confined. As I walked about ten steps with my left hand against the wall, a dead end appeared. It was blocked by the wall. I walked again along the blocked wall. Again, after about ten steps, a wall appeared. 'A rectangular space of about three square meters.' It was only then that I began to visualize the size and shape of the space in which I was confined. I continued walking along the wall. Then something caught my fingertips. It was a small, metal object. I couldn't see it, but I could feel its shape and texture. 

Chin!

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